June 1, 2021 To all our very valued Bulletin recipients, Due to increasing personal time constraints, I am reluctantly stepping away from writing the Bulletin. My association with OHS-BHM has been one of the most enlightening experiences I have had, with both the Bulletin and my repair and restoration work on the Bigelow House…
Throughout 2021 we are featuring events and people from the Sylvester’s Window cityscape project, now available online. Barbara O’Neill, pictured in the 2001 cityscape, was a commanding presence in our area for many years. While operating a soul food restaurant on Fourth Avenue, she instituted a practice of providing free holiday meals for those in…
Throughout 2021 we are featuring events and people from the Sylvester’s Window cityscape project, now available online. The 1950 cityscape begins to include some of downtown Olympia’s iconic mid-Century architecture. The Memorial Clinic just east of the Fourth Avenue bridge, designed in 1948 by father-son team Joseph and Robert Wohleb, was an innovative concept at…
Throughout 2021 we are featuring events and people from the Sylvester’s Window cityscape project, now available online. The Security Building on Fourth Avenue, pictured in the 1933 cityscape, was Olympia’s first “skyscraper,” at five stories! The building features elaborate rosettes and pineapple motifs, a variety of rare stones, and mahogany woodwork throughout. Built on pilings that extended…
Throughout 2021 we are featuring events and people from the Sylvester’s Window cityscape project, now available online. The 1899 cityscape shows one of Olympia’s five yellow trolleys proceeding southward on Main Street (now Capitol Way). The trolley system was electrified in 1892, with power supplied by the hydroelectric plant at Deschutes Falls. The system ran…
Throughout 2021 we are featuring events and people from the Sylvester’s Window cityscape project, now available online. Religious communities have always played an important role in the life of our residents. First Congregational church, pictured here at its first location on 9th and Capitol (out of view in the 1874 cityscape), was the fifth church…
Throughout 2021 we are featuring events and people from the Sylvester’s Window cityscape project, now available online. The site of the Washington Center for the Performing Arts has been an entertainment mecca since the 1920s, beginning with the Liberty movie theater. As suburban multiplexes spelled the slow demise of downtown cinema venues, the city of…
